You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Through nigh-on forty years of laconic brilliance on Radio 1, a musical taste which defined a culture and his wildly popular Radio 4 show, Home Truths, John Peel reached out to an audience that was as diverse as his record collection. He was a genuinely great Briton, beloved by millions. John's unique voice and sensibility were evident in everything he did, and nowhere is that more true than in these pages. Margrave of the Marshes is the astonishing book John Peel began to write before his untimely death in October 2004, completed by the woman who knew him best, his wife Sheila. It is a unique and intimate portrait of a life, a marriage and a family which is every bit as extraordinary as the man himself - a fitting tribute to a bona fide legend.
John Peel, the balding, self-deprecating Liverpudlian with the wilfully obscure taste in music, was an unlikely national institution. Yet with a pioneering radio career that spanned almost forty years, in which he championed left-field sounds from Captain Beefheart to Siouxsie and the Banshees, that is exactly what he became. When he died suddenly at the age of sixty-five in October 2004, millions mourned the loss of this quirky, influential figure. Now in this new biography, Michael Heatley traces Peel's career from his early counter-culture days on pirate radio through his maverick career at Radio One, right up to his later years where he found a new audience on Radio Four's popular Saturday morning show, Home Truths.
Goodnight and Good Riddance: How Thirty-Five Years of John Peel Helped to Shape Modern Britain is a social history, a diary of a nation's changing culture, and an in-depth appraisal of one of our greatest broadcasters, a man who can legitimately be called the most influential figure in post-war British popular music. Without the support of John Peel, it's unlikely that innumerable artists - from David Bowie to Dizzee Rascal, Jethro Tull to Joy Division - would have received national radio exposure. But Peel's influence goes much deeper than this. Whether he was championing punk, reggae, jungle or grime, he had a unique relationship with his audience that was part taste-maker, part trusted friend. The book focuses on some 300 shows between 1967 and 2004, giving a thorough overview of Peel's broadcasting career and placing it in its cultural and social contexts. Peel comes alive for the reader, as do the key developments that kept him at the cutting edge - the changes in his tastes; the changes in his thinking. Just like a Peel show, Goodnight and Good Riddance is warm, informative and insightful, and wears its enthusiasm proudly.
'Excellent ... paints an affectionate portrait of this unpretentious, humorous presenter who seems to have been loved by everyone who met him' SUNDAY TIMES 'A leisurely stroll through the life of an "irreplaceable man" - [a] thoughtful, well-paced portrait' OBSERVER A tribute biography of the hugely popular DJ and broadcaster John Peel John Peel was born in Cheshire in 1939 and, after National Service, he eventually went into broadcasting while travelling in America, where his Liverpool accent convinced them he must know the Beatles, and he was even present when Lee Harvey Oswald was shot. In 1967 he returned to the UK and joined Radio One at its start. His late-night radio shows were cult l...
None
'Excellent ... paints an affectionate portrait of this unpretentious, humorous presenter who seems to have been loved by everyone who met him' SUNDAY TIMES 'A leisurely stroll through the life of an "irreplaceable man" - [a] thoughtful, well-paced portrait' OBSERVER A tribute biography of the hugely popular DJ and broadcaster John Peel John Peel was born in Cheshire in 1939 and, after National Service, he eventually went into broadcasting while travelling in America, where his Liverpool accent convinced them he must know the Beatles, and he was even present when Lee Harvey Oswald was shot. In 1967 he returned to the UK and joined Radio One at its start. His late-night radio shows were cult l...
John Peel, the most influential DJ in rock history, was beloved by millions as an unstinting champion of musical talent on BBC's Radio 1 and as the host of the wildly popular Radio 4 show "Home Truths."
Arranged By: Shaw, Geoffrey.
This is a story of teenage dreams, which, as any Peel fan knows, are hard to beat. Between 1967 and 2004 John Peel picked over 2000 bands to come and record over 4000 sessions to be played on his radio show. Many were young and had never been in a recording studio before, for some it was the start of an illustrious career, for others it was the only recognition their musical talent ever got. For over 35 years the cream of British musical talent made the journey to the BBC's studio in Maida Vale, from Pink Floyd to Pulp, the Small Faces to the Smiths. And because John Peel was so respected his sessions took on a legendary status - they were a rite of passage that every new band wanted to go t...
Many an incredible story may have been told about young courageous men and women cycling the globe in search of adventure, covering vast distances at speed each day with not a care in the world, sleeping wherever they could pitch a tent or find someone willing to give them a free meal and bed for the night, who intentionally looked bedraggled to resemble famous adventurers of old, with men sporting wild hair and beards that could clear dusty streets as they cycled through. Well, this incredible story is a little different. It is an astonishing story about a 350-pound middle-aged, disabled, working-class husband and father. I was never a regular cyclist, and I knew nothing about bicycle maintenance and repair. And yet, without a single day of bicycle touring practice, I loaded up my shiny new bike with everything I thought I’d need and cycled out of Cheshire to see the world. Solo, self-financed, with no support network and without any fixed route plan other than, “I’m going that way.” What could go wrong? I wondered